Growth

Growth
Ireland has natural advantages in our location and political situation, which must be taken advantage of fully in order to encourage sustainable growth, the central focus of any growth policy.Growth comes about due to an influx of wealth into an economy. What this usually means is money coming into a country from other countries, which can happen in a few ways.

Foreign Direct Investment was the main source of income for Ireland for many years, with our low corporate tax rates attracting large US companies to our shores. Tourism is another method, which is an important element of Amhrán Nua policies.

The main and strongest method, however, is Domestic Export Based Industries (DEBI). Ireland has very few of these, 90% of our exports are directly due to FDI, which may or may not have mid to long term potential. The largest economies in the world, such as Germany and the USA are also top of the league tables for exports. The overall growth policy will aim to see DEBI expand to provide employment and security for millions of Irish people.

Investment in education
An enhanced educational system will prove to be of tremendous benefit to Ireland in the short, medium and longer terms. This extends to primary, secondary, third level, adult and ongoing education, and special education needs. Educational curriculums will be adjusted to provide the graduates Ireland needs to secure its future. Further information can be found in the Health and Education policy page, but the overall policies are as follows.

Set up ten world class educational institutions, not as fourth tier education but as an adjunct to existing third level education. These will be targeted towards specific areas where the country will aim for DEBI, with the intention of rolling out graduates in five to six years, paired with experienced businesspeople and engineers. They will also provide a major stimulus to any town or region they are based in.
The complete reform of FAS and ongoing adult education courses, and the removal of the perceived stigma associated with adult education among many sectors of the population.
Ensuring that access to Irish educational facilities remains as free as possible, which means no student fees or registration fees.
The use of the latest technology integrated with the Irish educational system, to build and supply Irish schools with hardened ebooks, connected to a wifi network in each school, which is attached in turn to a central repository of the entire curriculum. As part of this process, school infrastructure will be upgraded and rental agreements reviewed. This will be extended to all third level institutions.

Infrastructure buildout

In order for an economy to grow smoothly, a good infrastructure needs to be built. This is an important consideration to foreign companies that wish to come to Ireland, and an essential prerequisite for DEBIs. Compared to our Western European neighbours, our infrastructure leaves much to be desired, but its underdeveloped state can work to our advantage - we can install the latest and greatest technology now, where other countries might have to remove their old public works in order to improve them, and represents a great opportunity for Ireland.

Cost control of public works is a primary goal, while not compromising on quality. The current economic conditions present another advantage, with land prices and construction prices dropping nationally. With that in mind, a focus on tendering infrastructure buildouts to builders' co-operatives will be one of the main structures used to control costs.

Road and rail networks must be improved considerably. A high speed rail network connecting Dublin, Cork, Galway, Limerick and Belfast will be constructed alongside existing rail services, and older rail networks will be reactivated, as well as an expansion of public transport facilties, municipal light rail, and road networks.
It is the intention of Amhrán Nua to extend and improve the information infrastructure which exists in Ireland, including the provision of free municipal and eventually countrywide wi-fi networks, of low speed, with higher speeds available to subscribers and participants in a national data bank project, using peer to peer technologies to promote streaming internet television and bulk computing power when needed. Various datacentres and data switches will also be built to encourage increasingly important information companies to source their operations in Ireland. These wireless networks can be part funded by media groups who have found their revenue streams reduced due to competition from the internet - by dedicating a portion of the bandwidth to their flat fee news streams, fed to the tablets used in the education policy (sold to the public), costs to set up and maintain the wireless networks will be greatly minimised.
The basic water infrastructure is quite poor at the moment, with as much as two thirds of water leaking out of pipes before it ever reaches the tap. This represents a huge waste of water processing facilities, and so must be upgraded as a matter of priority.
The electrical grid must be upgraded to take account of future requirements, especially given the move away from petroleum based fuels for vehicles towards electrical vehicles. Consideration must also be given to power independence and redundancy, which means high voltage lines connecting Ireland to Western Europe, further reservoir systems like Turlough Hill, and major investment in wind based technology, while maintaining old stations as backups and ensuring we have at least a year's supply of fuel for these stations. A robust, low cost energy supply will also go a long way towards attracting inwards investment to Ireland.

Industrial and commercial growth

The cornerstone of the Irish DEBI growth will be our most important and yet most overlooked resource, the wind. We are in a very unique geographical position, at the leading edge of Europe and the first to receive the warming Gulf Stream wind which blows across the Atlantic and keeps Europe warm. These strong and steady winds, which can be found nowhere else on earth, provide us with a source of power which is easy to take advantage of and offers the potential for complete energy independence.

Using readily available sites and locations, there is enough of a steady wind over Ireland to provide over 5GW of power (source Sustainable Energy Ireland), with the possiblity of extending that to 8GW using only land based resources. If you extend that to offshore and deep water wind, we can in fact become major energy exporters to Western Europe. We fully support the Spirit of Ireland initiative in this respect.

How much will all this cost? Approximately as much as we'd spend in seven years of energy imports right now (which as a mid to long term trend aren't getting any cheaper), and thats including several Turlough Hill type projects to ensure security of supply. In addition, in the process, we will set up our core DEBI in building and exporting wind turbines, service and maintenance, although the intial buildout will be from imported turbines.

By focusing on existing technology and setting up manufacturing facilities to compete on the global market, with domestic demand as the initial cushion to ensure a market in the early years, as well as ironing out problems, we can not only be exporting energy, but the means to produce energy, with continued research and development into other maritime technologies such as wave, tidal, and deep water winds. Denmark has over 30,000 people employed in its wind industry at the moment, and exports in the multi-billions every year, and they can't keep up with demand.

Further areas that will be invested in to provide export-based industries, using the educational institutions outlined above, with a concentration on high initial investment, low ongoing cost growth areas:

Marine Science and Engineering: Since we are an island nation, it makes sense to enhance and build upon our marine resources, in such areas as shipbuilding and suboceanic resource exploration.
Materials: A good general area to be involved in, particularly with the almost daily advances in exotic materials, as well as honing skills in the more mundane materials needed for everyday engineering.
Renewable Resources: The above-outlined core project.
Energy Physics: Batteries and energy transmission, one of the main growth areas for the twenty first century, without question.
Medical, Biotech and Pharmaceuticals: We have a broad skills base in both research and production of medical supplies in Ireland, which when combined with a deep engineering pool will produce some interesting results for the lucrative medical and biotechnical international marketplace.
Chip Fabrication: Chip fabrication is at the heart of the information revolution, and it makes sense to have our own domestic stake in that marketplace.
Automation and Robotics: With all the concerns about globalisation and outsourcing these days, automating and using robotics to reduce manufacturing costs is the best method to ensure long term viability for our own domestic industries. Also these skills can be used in deep water and hostile environment resource exploitation.
Software: Already a well-established industry in Ireland, a concerted effort must be made to enhance and grow our skills base in this area, especially in the regions of theoretical computer science.
Languages: An ever more closely connected world means that language skills are in greater demand, both on a personal level and in every area, especially specialised industries, and we will help businesses to benefit more from the opportunities offered by the Single Market. This can also be used to enhance our social and cultural links with our European neighbours.
Marketing and media: One of the most often overlooked areas when setting up any industry is the need to have a group skilled in marketing and selling these items locally, in the export markets we are aiming at. A modern media training resource will also be vital to enhance the viability of many industries, along with movies and similar projects.

Not only will these provide initial industries for the country, spinoff and subsidiary industries will be built to support the main industrial process.

Further steps

We will incetivise the pairing of experienced businesspeople that might be unemployed, with new companies, in exchange for a small equity share in the company.We will set up skilled unemployed co-ops to consolidate skills and share ideas among the newly unemployed.Enterprise Ireland and the County Leader programmes are to be overhauled to be more inclusive and more proactive in the small business sector.
Set up a Business Advisory Board whose purpose it is to advise new small businesses on issues such as marketing, export regulations, and languages.
Make public administration responsive to the needs of small business.
Adapt public policy tools to small business needs: for example, facilitate small businesses’ participation in public procurement and teach them how to better use state aid possibilities.
Media programmes will be launched to encourage entrepreneurship.
Work to ensure clarity in national imports and exports, producing an annual report for that purpose.
Continue to enhance successful cross border cooperation.
Set up and encourage co-op movements in rural areas, with the intention of setting up a co-op in every village and parish as a business centre and a place to share experience, while looking at the possiblity of communal facilities such as abbatoirs.
Forestry will be provided with our full support to ensure that its markets are expanded.
We will provide incentives for the agricultural sector to focus on niche markets rather than trying to compete with larger farm setups in other countries, for example conversion of unused mushroom tunnels to exotic flower farms, and set up local food festivals.
The setting up of allotment schemes to allow urban citizens to grow their own food in a rural or suburban setting.
Enhance tourism and communications by working with established world leaders in map digitisation to produce a fully interactive, online, image enhanced map of the country, integrated with a national business and tourism directory.
Examine the regulatory structure for outdoor markets and food processing, with an aim to streamlining it, and setting up local markets in every county and metropolitan area.
A major science and technology exhibition will be set up and held annually in Dublin city.
Work with companies such as Google to assist in the transcription of the curriculums to an electronically accessable format, and future cooperation with an aim to transform Ireland into an international data hub, with the possibility of restructuring intellectual property laws towards that end.